James 4:1-17

(James 4:1-17)

From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?  Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.  Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another? Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:  Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.  For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.  But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.  Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

 

The fruit of faith is manifested in doing. The first thing to do is say not to take off the world. The Bible compares "those who love God but love the world" to spiritual adultery.『Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. In 1 John 2:15-16『Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 』 Those who love this world are not reborn as spirit bodies.James said this metaphorically about the problem of godliness. Those who seem outwardly are not godly. Just as we can be reverent only after being born again, those who love the world are likewise ungodly.

 

The second is the act of faith that responds through obedience to what God wants. In Genesis 22, Abraham gave his son Isaac to the altar. In spite of being a precious son obtained by turning 100, trusting in God and obeying in faith, he was finally considered righteous.

 

The third is to oppose the Devil. 『Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. How can the saints resist the devil? Only by the power of the Holy Spirit can the saints resist the Devil. It is only possible for the saints to live "a life of self-denial" in order to gain the power of the Holy Spirit. That is, we must remember every day that we are dead with Jesus.

 

The fourth is to mourn. It has the same meaning as saying that the spirit is poor. It means that those who have left God cry out to God. The Israelites locked up in Egypt cried out to God. So, God remembered the covenant with Abraham and brought him out through Moses. 『Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. .Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 』 We must mourn, remembering that we were ruled by Satan while living in this world. So, in order to return to the kingdom of God, we have to grudge against Satan's delusion and have to be identified with God.

 

Fifth, do not slander each other. If you slander each other, Satan will be your favorite. Satan is the one who asserts his righteousness and deceives all humans to leave God and reach his righteousness. This is because those who slander others eventually slander on the basis of their own righteousness. The moment you slander others, you will soon become a god. 『Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. 』 Only the God who judges can do it, but by making slander, he becomes a judge of the law.

 

The sixth is to abandon empty thoughts. 『But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. 』 In the world, the passions of the flesh, the passions of the eyes, and the pride of this life are all empty. The saints do not love this world, they must yearn only for the kingdom of God. All who fail to do so are evil. God's good is to make the kingdom of God in this world only. The wicked are not interested in the kingdom of God, only the world. We must not forget that it is a fog that disappears after a while.

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